Abe Kasbo, CEO, Verasoni Worldwide.
Amazon’s recent landmark partnership with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase is yet another example of how certain sectors continue to underestimate Amazon’s imagination, never mind business prowess. I honestly believe some businesses, though fully capable, simply do not know how to respond to Amazon, and therefore don’t even try. Or they may want to try, but are afraid to fail. Amazon has led the way in industries where there’s prodigious inertia, like retail, entertainment, grocery and now health care.
The announcement, which is short on details, spurred a sell-off in some of health care’s most popular stocks like CVS, Cardinal Health, Walgreen and United Healthcare, among others. If the Whole Foods acquisition wasn’t a wakeup call, this particular venture into health care is a shot across the bow to every industry in America. It seems the financial markets were nervous that Amazon and partners will do what no American government could achieve to date: get better control of health care costs and deliver efficiencies and results where they matter. The cornerstone of the announcement, in my estimation, is the intention by this coalition to deliver health care “free from profit-making incentives.” American health care’s long resistance to price transparency seems to be have been dealt a blow with this announcement and that is a good thing for patients, and for health care providers, who can now compete on price, experience and outcomes … read more